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SIMONE WEIL: Selected Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters) by SPRINGSTED
Paperback
Published January 1, 1715
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August 26, 2025
From the Introduction:
“We have to be willing to be transformed by the truth of what we encounter; we cannot seek to control it to our own ends. She may well have recognized the importance of this truth simply because she struggled with it to the degree that she did” (24)
——
“Thus it is literally true that friendship gives to my thought all the life it has, apart from what comes to it from God or from the beauty of the world” (40)
“The more mediocre I am, the more obvious is the immensity of the love which maintains my existence” (80)
“If we love only through what is good, then it is not God we’re loving but something earthly to which we give that name” (80)
“Some realities are more or less transparent; others are completely opaque” (80)
“Turn away with your whole soul from the things which pass” (84) — Plato
“The self, as it disappears, must become an empty space through which God and the creation contemplate each other” (89) — this feels like such a useful metaphor for poetry
“Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love” (91)
“For there to be desire, there must be pleasure and joy in the work. The intelligence grows and bears fruit only in joy. The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running” (95)
“Earthly things are the criterion of spiritual things” (109)
“There are three mysteries, three incomprehensible things, in this world: beauty, justice, truth” (111)
“All I can do is to desire the good….the desire for good is itself a good” (115)
“Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison. We are experiencing this…Pure science is a contemplation of the order of the world as necessity. Necessity appears only through the method of proof” (118).
“Science is an effort to perceive the order of the universe. It follows that it is a contact of human thought with eternal wisdom. It is something like a sacrament” (119)
“What is culture? The formation of the attention. Participation in the spiritual and poetic treasures accumulated by humanity across the ages. Knowledge of man. Concrete knowledge of good and evil” (119)
“Compassion is what spans this abyss which creation has opened between God and the creature. It is the rainbow. Compassion should have the same dimension as the act of creation. It cannot exclude a single creature. One should love oneself only with a compassionate love. Every created thing is an object for compassion because it is ephemeral. Every created thing is an object for compassion because it is limited. Compassion directed towards oneself is humility. Humility is the only permitted form of self-love… without humility, all the virtues are finite. Only humility makes them infinite” (143)
“We have to be willing to be transformed by the truth of what we encounter; we cannot seek to control it to our own ends. She may well have recognized the importance of this truth simply because she struggled with it to the degree that she did” (24)
——
“Thus it is literally true that friendship gives to my thought all the life it has, apart from what comes to it from God or from the beauty of the world” (40)
“The more mediocre I am, the more obvious is the immensity of the love which maintains my existence” (80)
“If we love only through what is good, then it is not God we’re loving but something earthly to which we give that name” (80)
“Some realities are more or less transparent; others are completely opaque” (80)
“Turn away with your whole soul from the things which pass” (84) — Plato
“The self, as it disappears, must become an empty space through which God and the creation contemplate each other” (89) — this feels like such a useful metaphor for poetry
“Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love” (91)
“For there to be desire, there must be pleasure and joy in the work. The intelligence grows and bears fruit only in joy. The joy of learning is as indispensable in study as breathing is in running” (95)
“Earthly things are the criterion of spiritual things” (109)
“There are three mysteries, three incomprehensible things, in this world: beauty, justice, truth” (111)
“All I can do is to desire the good….the desire for good is itself a good” (115)
“Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison. We are experiencing this…Pure science is a contemplation of the order of the world as necessity. Necessity appears only through the method of proof” (118).
“Science is an effort to perceive the order of the universe. It follows that it is a contact of human thought with eternal wisdom. It is something like a sacrament” (119)
“What is culture? The formation of the attention. Participation in the spiritual and poetic treasures accumulated by humanity across the ages. Knowledge of man. Concrete knowledge of good and evil” (119)
“Compassion is what spans this abyss which creation has opened between God and the creature. It is the rainbow. Compassion should have the same dimension as the act of creation. It cannot exclude a single creature. One should love oneself only with a compassionate love. Every created thing is an object for compassion because it is ephemeral. Every created thing is an object for compassion because it is limited. Compassion directed towards oneself is humility. Humility is the only permitted form of self-love… without humility, all the virtues are finite. Only humility makes them infinite” (143)
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